Letting go of a colleague

A person that I trained back in April hasn't worked out. He hasn't taken his work seriously, so he is being let go from his contract.

It's a bit sad that a bunch of us have invested so much time to help him out. I trained him for 1.5 hours, starting at 8 am each day for half the day. My friend and colleague, and another colleague, were his co-team leads, and basically handheld him.

This person was being monitored for two weeks, which coincided with my two-week vacation. I got the news officially today that he was being let go when I was asked to take a look at potential candidates to fill this person's position.

It is bittersweet, but it's the right call given how unproductive he has been.

Working with a diva who loves putting files into folders

I work with a colleague whom I have nicknamed Diva over the years. She is one.

It's crazy that she recently celebrated eight years with the company. I trained her.

From the moment she set foot with the company, I noticed her thing for putting files in folders. It is to the point where it's overkill and an obsession.

For over a year, she wanted to put files in a repository into subfolders. She was the only person who complained about the setup. I explained why I put everything in a single folder. I set up all documents. I need to make sure that they are all there in a glance. I also assign document numbers to them. It takes me a week to do all that work for each major software release that we have. It would take more time if I had subfolders to switch between views.

Well, she went ahead and did her folder thing. That's fine if she wants to waste her time and claim that it'll reduce errors made by her. It's more because she has a folder obsession. I'm wondering if it's OCD.

It's not a showstopper to me. She will live with or without putting files in folders and subfolders.

This week, she faced an issue and couldn't solve it herself. She goes with asking people first. I'm the complete opposite. I'll try and troubleshoot it before I poll people. I normally don't poll folks on my team because, often, no one has the experience. There are finally a few people who do. I went ahead and ignored her. She needs to put in some effort, rather than taking a shortcut by simply asking first.

She is a diva. She expects everything to be done for her. Thank goodness she did her folder thing herself. Such a waste of productivity!

Meeting going at a snail's pace

Work is enjoyable again, except for one member of our team who has been there for a good four years. He talks a lot. He is a scatterbrain. He copies the world on every single e-mail. He's not the most productive colleague.

On Wednesday, he pinged me on our work instant messaging app. He told me that he was in a meeting and asked if I could join. He then sent me the meeting invitation while the meeting was in progress. Nice.

I declined. I don't go for such late invitations, unless it is urgent. This meeting wasn't. I was also working from home and didn't feel the need to be there for work that he had to do.

On Thursday, we had our team meeting. He basically spent twenty minutes of an hour-long meeting making a big deal about the tasks that he was working on and those that he hadn't touched. He also had a bit of a riff with our manager, which made him look like a jerk.

He talked so much that my team didn't get to share what we had worked on this week. I have a writer and a student on our team. We were all bored out of our minds listening to him.

The highlight? Both the writer and I looked at what the student had doodled in her notebook. She drew a snail. We all laughed. It was perfect.

Turfing the diva... yay!

My manager and I had a confidential talk about our troublesome new writer. Before I dive into those details, this writer decided to indicate that she was taking a sick day on Thursday.

Having her away from the office felt good. None of us had to deal with her diva-like tendencies.

My manager indicated that he had spoken to his manager about this writer. They both agreed that she needs to be canned. She has her own agenda, doesn't listen, and is a loose, unproductive cannon.

Her workload won't go back to me. Rather, the other writer who has already taken over a portion of my work will take over her work. Essentially, this writer is my mini-me. She works well and she is okay with taking on my workload, minus the other lead tasks that I do.

That's good. I can continue working on processes and other details.

My boss got word from another colleague that the diva has been saying negative things about both of us. I asked him not to tell me what they were. I don't need to know.

My view is that whenever someone has something negative to say about me, not only is it untrue, but it signals insecurity. The diva gives the impression that she knows everything. She doesn't. Instead, she needs to say horrible things about folks to make her feel better.

She also seems to buy her way to being liked. We recently had a colleague from Brazil visit for three weeks. Although the diva didn't know her, she bought her a parting gift last Friday. Odd.

During her first week, she said that she would buy me a tea. The following week, she did the same thing. She never did. Perhaps she was waiting for me to make the first move. I don't fall for such a trap.

Anyway, my boss is planning to can her either on Friday or Monday. The latter looks more promising. Either way, I feel a weight being lifted.

The diva has been a bad influence on a number of writers. I have noticed this week that as soon as either my boss or I walk into the lunchroom in which she is in, she immediately looks, gets up, and leaves. Ah, such maturity!

The diva is closer to my manager's age. I am wondering whether she feels threatened by someone like me, who is equally as seasoned of a writer, but who is far more competent, be her team lead.

My manager describes her as a poison. I agree. I actually said to him that she is toxic. I avoid toxic folks at all costs.